Catblogging - Lost

Boots

Last November this pair of adorable kitties showed up on the block. It was a very lookalike pair of brother/sister tuxedos (and we soon found out it was a trio, as they had a longhaired tuxedo sister, but she hardly ever visits). This is the first one who showed up on the right. She sported 4 white boots and her brother had white boots in the back with white toes in front. You never saw sweeter or more affectionate cats, these were cuddle-monsters from the start. We later nicknamed them "Boots" and "Bisou." (Our original name for him was "Spats," but Bisou being French for 'kiss' it seemed like a cuter name.)

The first time these kitten/cats ventured onto the screened porch, they both piled into my lap and went to sleep.
These cats seemed to be mostly outdoors, but they always looked good - good coats, no injuries or obvious health issues. Because of that, I tried to worry less, or at least I was able to push the worries to back of my mind - because these are not our cats, and they have a home around here somewhere. Before long, Bisou started to readily come inside the house for belly rubs, snuggling, and occasionally a short nap. We never feed local cats anymore, and no longer have litter pans, so we make sure the visits are very short. It is important to us that neighbor cats know where they are supposed to be living, where their real home is. It's important that they don't think they live with us.

We just can't go through cat-parenthood again. It's far too painful, expensive and hazardous to our own health through stresses. But I looked forward to every visit from Bisou, and really tried not to fall in love.

We started to see Boots a lot less frequently in the daytime, and found out that she had become a night kitty. Any evening, after dark, we can go out in the driveway, and she will come running. She is usually either under a truck down the street or coming out of the storm sewer. She wants belly rubs and petting, and does not get tired of them. She got to be much more skittish about the house though, and stopped coming inside at all, ever.

About a week ago, these posters went up in the neighborhood. It is Bisou. I am happy that Bisou's humans cared enough to put them up. I have seen many cats go missing around here without seeing flyers or getting an inquisitive knock at the door to let people know that they are missing their little sweetie.

If you are a long-time reader here, you know that I have strong feelings against leaving cats to roam freely and unsupervised outdoors except under certain circumstances - but for me those circumstances do not include a suburban neighborhood. The outdoors in general present dangers from venomous snakes, scorpions, coyotes, and all manner of things. In areas where humans are denser, there's the extra danger from vehicle death, child/teenage/adult pranks, dogs, other cats, communicable cat diseases, whatever lives in the storm sewers, plus the snakes, scorpions and coyotes. It's an active debate in the cat-world and there are pros and cons to both indoor and outdoor choices. What is not in dispute is that outdoor cats have a much shorter lifespan.

We do not know what happened to Bisou. It is possible that some neighbor who fell in love with him decided to make it permanent. That's what we have to hope for. I contacted Bisou's people to send them our photos, and the woman said that they provide shelter for Boots in the garage. I don't know if that means an open or closed garage, but a closed garage in the winter here is a welcome thing, but in the Texas summer it will not be shelter. It will be an oven, even at night. If Bisou is really gone from this world (and we don't know what happened), he will never have experienced a whole summer, as he was a young cat just out of kittenhood when he came into our lives last November. We miss him very much.
Bisou

I'm Too Old For This

I'm Too Old For This - Christopher Cross and Van Wilks, a soundtrack very appropriate for this post.


I almost feel as though I should apologize for the almost complete lack of political posts lately here at the Oasis. I'm not out of touch with it, I keep up with the goings-on, but I am so disgusted and tired of it by days-end. The knockout punch came this week when early voting began for the Texas primaries and I discovered that we have been the victim of the redistricting fiasco - and we are not longer living in Rep. Lloyd Doggett's district. For the first time in my life, I had a Congressperson who truly represented my views. The only (D) running against whoever with be the GOP candidate is named Elaine Henderson. I have never heard of her. She does not seem to have a published website yet, and her Facebook presence is very sparse. I ran across this very short bio but so far cannot detect any signs of a campaign. [sigh]

We had a bit of a rough time since the beginning of May. My back was feeling stiff so I tried to stretch it this way and that - obviously I waaaay overdid it because I sprained it. Pain, pain, pain. The doctor gave me some meds, a muscle relaxer and a pain killer, so I wasted quite a few days away in pain and foggy brain. While that was going on, MrB fell off his bicycle and got some bruised ribs and generally very painful midsection - so there we were - both applying ice and heat and swallowing those foggy pills.

On Friday night, we missed a planned concert because of that, but did go out Saturday for a great show. It was Van Wilks birthday party show, with Carson Brock opening, and special guests Eric Johnson, Christopher Cross and Dave Sebree (Dave runs the Austin School of Music and rarely plays solo, but he is one hell of a guitar player). The video at the top of the post is from that show, and so is the following pretty instrumental. We could all use a little beauty, it sure can overwhelm all the ugliness.

Rainy Day in Vancouver - Christopher Cross, Eric Johnson, Van Wilks

Labyrinth at Natural Gardener

This labyrinth update is for Debra. A couple of years ago, the labyrinth was in a transitional state. They had been trying to construct it in plant life, but that plan did not work out. Now it is back, and made of good, old stones. Take a look at the gate for it, which leads into a short path, in this older post.

The Natural Gardener is a nursery, a plant business, but it's such a wonderful place it's worthy of just visiting. We went there to buy some milkweed for the butterflies, and it is doing well in the backyard now.

The labyrinth is surrounded by beautiful wildflowers, a few garden sculptures, and on one side there is a teepee. Here's a nice view facing outward, and at bottom, Google's satellite version.

Acousticity

We were just a couple of days past Eeyore's Birthday drum circle day when it was time for some great live music shows. We got a couple of very special tickets for the Punch Brothers' Austin City Limits TV taping! Didn't not take any pics or video (They really really prefer that you don't take video, esp. since they are filming the show anyway, and all the phone cams make the audience look dorky.) but there are lots of nice pro pics at the link.

This was only our 4th time to get to attend and ACL taping. The tickets are free but must be acquired through a lottery or a connection, it's not easy to get in. The sound is amazing, and so is the camera work on the finished product, that we may get to see on TV this Fall.

If an ACL taping with what is probably my favorite band right now was not enough, we also saw them the next night at a sold-out, little-bit rowdy show at Antone's club. If the crowd at the taping was a bit reserved, this one made up for it - and there's video to show for it. This is actually an old one that mandolinist Chris Thile first wrote and recorded back when he was about 18. It's a gorgeous instrumental that I can't listen to enough.

Punch Brothers - Song For a Young Queen


This one is a cover of a song by The Strokes, but PB has made it their own, IMO. It's not one that they played during the taping because it contains one of those words that you still can't say on TV.
Punch Brothers - Heart in a Cage


Just a couple of days after Punch Brothers came though town, we were happy to welcome The Greencards back to Austin. They have moved back here from Nashville, and it's nice to have them back. Like Punch Brothers, they really tear it up on the strings and vocals. Here's a beautiful instrumental.
The Greencards - Adelaide


Great shows! What a week. Now - a little rest.

Spring's Last Hurrah

Well, it's been busy around here, always too much to do. Been getting behind in the postings here, and even forgot to mention my 7 year blog anniversary on the 6th! Will start out with Eeyore's Birthday Party, the annual costumed gathering that I like to call "Flowers, Drums, Songs." It's an all-ages all-species event featuring old and new hippie culture, May-Pole, live music, microbrews, topless women, and freeform dancing centered (for us, anyway) around the drum circle. Here's a short video of this year's circle.

OK, you are thinking, "where are the topless women?" (I could tell.) There are a number of really nice photo collections of the festivities and fabulous costumes posted on the Eeyore's site, ranging from casual to pro. A couple of my favorite ones are by Craig Bush and Nathan Caperton.

Night colors

These are called Four O'Clocks (Mirabilis Jalapa), a pic from the backyard.


They are appropriately named because they bloom from late afternoon through the night. A night-blooming flower, what a wonderful thing! So much intense color that is mostly not for the benefit of humans. They are supposed to be fragrant, but I have not experienced that. I tend to not sniff a lot of flowers because of wanting to avoid inhaling pollen and/or bugs.

Old Timers

I've been caught up in the work busies, spending a lot of hours at work and still trying to keep up with the day-to-days, including getting some rest.

We lost Levon Helm, so sad... loved his music (and a fine actor too), he was in his 70s and I used think that was pretty old - now that I've gotten my first Senior Discount it seems to young to go. Dick Clark also just died - a personality that we boomers grew up with. If these things come in threes (and that's all individual perception, of course), then my third one was Jonathan Frid, TV's Barnabas Collins on Dark Shadows, a show my mother and I watched every day. So wonderfully cheesy and addictive. I got to see him reciting some essays in a tiny, old theater, and got to meet him and get his autograph at a reception following that. It was pretty special.

Because of having to be at work, I didn't get to attend the unveiling of Willie Nelson's statue downtown. I love the fact that this beloved entertainer has gotten to unveil his own statue.

Here is a short spectator video of Willie performing a song that is rather on-topic when it comes to the passing of old favorites and celebrating their memory.

Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die

A good excuse for a parade!

Running a little behind here (and the same might be said for the topics of this post) but wanted to share some pics of the recent Pets in Drag (Easter) Parade. This event was dedicated to Leslie (Cochran), who died on March 8 [more here], and who was for many years considered to be Austin's mascot, an icon, almost the spirit of the town. A sighting, or encounter with Leslie represented the cherry on the top of a day spent in Austin. In fact, I would say a visit here could not be considered complete without a sighting, because you were obviously not in the right places.

The short description of Leslie is "cross-dressing, street person who ran for Mayor a few times and got thousands of votes." He was not even the only person who fit that description (!) but Leslie had a great measure of charm, was an activist and advocate for the rights and issues of the homeless, and was known for wearing thongs. Leslie was everywhere, at most all local culture events or just jazzing up the constant people parades that are 6th Street or South Congress. See more photos from the newspaper's Leslie gallery, reader-submitted photos, and the memorial service (we attended) held in the park.

To get back to the spirit of parading around in a thong, here are some more pics of animal cuteness and hopefully not too much distress over hair coloring or the wearing of wigs.

It's worth wondering why, if a person (or extend that to include animals and everything on the planet for that matter) was so beloved, then why were they not better sheltered and cared-for? That is always a mighty big topic that is worthy of discussion. Leslie was homeless, yet had family and friends. Sometimes habitation situations simply do not work out for the involved parties. It could be the very short version of a very long and complicated story.

Museums for staycationers

Well, this is fabulous.

No really. It is. On the Google home page today, I see a link for the Google Art Project. They have been creating browsing version of major art galleries in the world, and not only can you view the artwork by museum, you can view by artist, by works, or put together your own collection.

My favorite part is the "street view" option that lets you click through the halls of places like the Acropolis Museum or the White House.

Rock Me, Baby

My favorite version of this song played by my favorite guitar player, Eric Johnson. This is from an old, old episode of Austin City Limits.